Veggie Blog

The old version of this post presented a set of recipes as detox recipes, said they would “cleanse your body from toxins,” and recommended a three-day fast followed by a diet of one kind of fruit at each meal. The recipes themselves are simple vegetable-heavy dishes and they are fine as ordinary healthy meals. The claim that they cleanse your body is not supported, and the fasting plan is not something I can recommend. Here is how to enjoy the recipes and what to know first.

Do detox recipes remove toxins?

No good evidence says so. The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health says that a 2015 review concluded there was no compelling research to support the use of “detox” diets for weight management or for eliminating toxins from the body and that a 2017 review found that juicing and “detox” diets can cause initial weight loss but tend to lead to weight gain when normal eating resumes. Your liver and kidneys already remove waste, as our post on what your body already does to clean itself explains. The recipes below are worth making because they are vegetables, not because they purify anything. See also body detox the easy way.

What about the fast and the one-fruit diet?

The old post quoted a Dr. Kiki Sidhwa as recommending a three-day fast followed by a diet of one type of fruit at each meal: apple for breakfast, oranges or pineapple for lunch, and apples, pears, grapes or bananas in the evening. I could not verify this advice or the doctor’s credentials, and a diet of one food at a time is low in protein and many nutrients. NCCIH lists fasting and eating only certain foods among the “detox” approaches it reviewed, and notes that there have been no studies on the long-term effects of such programs. Anyone with a medical condition or on medication should ask a doctor before fasting.

How do you make the vegetable juice and the soups?

I have kept the ingredients of the old post’s recipes. Quantities were garbled, so treat them as a guide.

Green vegetable juice: one whole cucumber, four celery sticks, two to four handfuls of spinach and eight lettuce leaves, with parsley if you like. Juice the vegetables and add water and a little lemon juice. Whole vegetables keep the fiber that juicing removes. The old post suggested adding alfalfa sprouts. The FDA advises avoiding raw sprouts of any kind, including alfalfa, because bacteria can reach high levels during sprouting even under clean conditions, and recommends cooking them thoroughly, so I would leave them out or cook them.

Raw avocado soup: blend one avocado with 100 ml of light vegetable stock into a paste, then blend in two spring onions, a pepper, a cucumber, two handfuls of spinach, a garlic clove and the juice of a lemon or lime. The old post called it “alkalising,” a claim with no support, so I dropped the word. It also added Bragg Liquid Aminos for flavor. That is a soy-based seasoning that adds salt, so use it sparingly if you watch your sodium.

Warm broccoli soup: lightly steam six to eight broccoli heads for five to six minutes, then blend them with an avocado, a third of an onion, a celery stick, a large handful of spinach, a piece of fresh ginger and cumin, and season with garlic and pepper.

Is the ginger and turmeric tea worth drinking?

As a warm drink, yes. The old recipe used two cups of water, a teaspoon each of powdered ginger and turmeric, a tablespoon of maple syrup and some lemon, simmered for ten minutes and strained. It will not cleanse you. NCCIH says that for turmeric, there is not enough evidence to conclude that it is beneficial for any health condition, though it is widely used in cooking. If you take medicines or are thinking of using turmeric as a concentrated supplement, ask your doctor first, as supplements are much stronger than the spice in a tea.

What should you do instead?

Make the soups part of a normal week of vegetables, fruit, beans, nuts and whole grains. The old post’s rule of thumb, more fiber and water, is good advice. If you buy juice, choose pasteurized products, because the FDA warns that unpasteurized juice can contain harmful bacteria that make children, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems seriously ill. For the full evidence, read NCCIH’s page on detoxes and cleanses, and see our guide to gentle detox habits versus harsh cleanses.